by John J. Sweeney, President AFL-CIO

Labor Day is a time for us in the labor movement to celebrate working people and their contributions to our society. It is also an occasion to remember the struggles of those who went before us to achieve the many benefits that we often take for granted today: the eight-hour work day, overtime pay, vacation days, weekends, other benefits and the right to organize to lift their standard of living.

But this year is special as we observed the last Labor Day celebration of the 20^th century. One century closes on organized labor as we look forward to the dawn of a new millennium. Change most certainly is in store for working families and their unions, many changes we can't even envision now.

One constant, however, is the role of organized labor in America. The mission of the labor movement, just as it has been since our beginning, is to improve the lives of working families, to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. To accomplish this mission, we will build and change the American labor movement.

Unions serve as the voice of working families on the job, in the community and in the political arena. Without a strong voice, workers are powerless to improve their lives, save for a secure retirement or provide their families with a better future. Workers without power also are far more likely to be exploited, mistreated and abused on the job and in society.

Inherent tension always exists in the employer-employee relationship. As long as one person has the power or influence to hire and fire, give pay raises or offer promotions, an unequal balance results. An individual worker, standing alone, has little power. Workers who bring together their collective strength through a union can equalize the power relationship between employer and employee.

The type of work we do may change and the places where we work may be cleaner. But whether we live in the 20^th or 21^st century, the power relationships which define employment remain the same. In the face of increased globalization and the drive by corporations for ever higher profits at the lowest cost, workers need union representation now more than ever. Yet, today's economy is reported to be the strongest that it has been in decades. Low unemployment. Record profits. A booming stock market. Low inflation. But many working families are finding it harder to make ends meet. Remember the old joke: "Yes the economy's creating more jobs. And I've got three of them."

It's still true for many workers. How many people do you know who face layoffs, pay cuts or job loss? Or who work many hours of overtime because the company won't hire more full-time people? Or whose grown children have moved back home because of financial difficulties they face?

These are just a few of the problems that many working families confront. Contrary to what the headlines tell us, workers today are struggling more than ever. Real wages are down 9 percent since the 1970s at a time when productivity has increased more than 30 percent. The wage gap also widened: between 1973 and 1997, the average income of the poorest 20 percent of all families fell by $701 while the average income of the richest 20 percent grew by $39,077.

Greed also has taken hold at the top ranks of our nation's corporations. In 1980, CEO pay averaged 41 times the average blue collar worker's pay. By 1999, CEO pay had grown to 419 times the average blue collar worker's pay, the widest gap in the world.

At the same time that wages have dropped, union membership continues to decline as a percentage of the workforce. Yes, a culture of organizing is taking hold in the labor movement. Union membership grew by 101,000 in 1998 for the first time in several years. We also won more than 50 percent of all NLRB representation elections last year among units of more than 500.

Unions are organizing. Just recently the Service Employees organized 74,000 home health care workers in Los Angeles. The United Auto Workers won organizing elections among 10,000 graduate-student assistants on all eight campuses of the University of California. Some 10,000 US Airways passenger service and ticket agents voted for the Communications Workers of America in a re-run election. In September, 66,000 public workers in Puerto Rico decided which unions will represent them.

But other unions must do more organizing because the challenge is so great. We must grow by a net gain of 300,000 workers each year just to stay even. If we want to represent 35 percent of the workforce, as we did in the 1950s, we need to organize about 20 million workers. Workers will only increase their power when the numbers of union members go back up.

As our organizing victories increase, we also see greater resistence from corporate America. Many business people fear unions. No wonder. In 1998, the weekly earnings of union workers were 32 percent higher than the weekly earnings of nonunion workers, $659 versus $499. Through collective bargaining, workers win a bigger share of the profits that management in nonunion workplaces usually keeps for themselves.

We further have, on the eve of this millennium, protected the right of unions to speak out on the great issues of our time. In California, the labor movement and its allies turned back a vicious campaign to mislead the public and even union members to silence labor's voice in politics. Coming from way behind in the polls, we defeated Proposition 226 that would have barred unions from talking to union families about social security, education, patient's rights and the minimum wage. If this ballot initiative had carried, working families would have lost the voice of labor as a strong advocate on behalf of their interests and concerns. These fights, like organizing, must continue and we must win them.

On Labor Day 1999, we recommited ourselves to bring into reality a new vision of justice in our communities for the 21^st century, a vision that starts with a vibrant, powerful labor movement. There are many changes that labor can control to achieve this.

We must change the erroneous public perception of organized labor as a "special interest" by reaching out as never before to religious groups, academia, minority organizations, community coalitions and others. We must engage them in partnerships that affirm our shared values and common bonds. A good example of this is our Labor in the Pulpits program, a joint project with the National Interfaith Committee for Workers Justice.

Labor must change our internal organizations to strengthen the resolve of our current members and to bring new workers into our ranks. A program to restructure AFL-CIO state and local organizations was recently approved. And more unions will adopt a "Change to Organize" program that moves significant resources into organizing.

We must commit ourselves to full and active participation in the political process to change the current anti-union climate. Our goal is to elect candidates who care about workers and who will support legislation that benefits working families. Union members are encouraged to get involved with the Labor 2000 political action program now underway in their communities.

Finally, we demand the basic right of all workers to choose union organization free of employer-inspired fear, intimidation or harassment. The right to organize does not now exist in the United States and we must change current labor law.

Let us observe Labor Day 1999 by making our voices heard loud and clear for the values in which we believe: Social Justice. Equality. Dignity and respect of all persons. Economic fairness. Decent treatment in the workplace. The right of all workers to freely choose a union. With a new vision of justice in mind, labor must continue to adapt, to grow and to unite ourselves into an unstoppable force for the realization of the true American Dream for all our citizens in the 21^st century.